23 House Democrats Send Soviets Warning

March 26, 1985|By New York Times News Service.

WASHINGTON — A group of liberal and centrist Democrats in the House has sent a private letter to Mikhail Gorbachev warning that the Soviet Union must comply with existing arms-control treaties or risk the most ``serious consequences for the future of arms control.``

The main purpose of the letter to the Soviet leader, several of the 23 signers said, was to send a message to Moscow that arms-control advocates as well as critics will insist that existing arms-limitation pacts be honored before future ones can be negotiated.

The highly unusual form of communication specifically stated that prospects for a limit on space-based defenses, which is widely seen as Moscow`s major goal in the arms-control talks in Geneva, ``would become much more difficult`` without strict treaty compliance.

The letter signers included three powerful House members who will deal with future arms treaties: Dante Fascell of Florida, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; Joseph Addabbo of New York, chairman of the Appropriations Committee`s Subcommittee on Defense; and Les Aspin of Wisconsin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

The most pointed reference in the letter was to the radar under construction near Krasnoyarsk in central Siberia. Like the administration, these Democrats contend that the radar, when it starts working in two or three years, will be a violation of the 1972 treaty on antiballistic missiles.

If the Krasnoyarsk ``problem is not resolved in a satisfactory manner,``

the letter states, ``it will have serious consequences for the future of the arms-control process,`` including eroding ``substantive and political support for the ABM treaty itself in the Congress and among the American people.``

Several of the signers said the model for their letter was one sent to the South African ambassador here last December by 35 conservative House members who had not previously spoken out against apartheid.

``Critics of arms control sending this kind of message could be dismissed by the Soviets,`` said Rep. Stephen Solarz of New York. ``But they might take the point more seriously when it comes from liberal Democrats with a long track record of support for arms control.``

Solarz, Aspin and Rep. Norman Dicks of Washington were the prime movers in writing and organizing Democratic support for the letter, which they said was delivered Friday to the Soviet Embassy. Aspin and Dicks have also been instrumental in building House backing for the MX missiles.

Administration officials welcomed the letter as a sign of congressional support. They did so although they know that, as Dicks said in a telephone interview, the signers are ``hopeful for a strengthening of the existing ABM treaty and that the administration will agree to limits on President Reagan`s Strategic Defense Initiative,`` popularly known as ``Star Wars.``